'We stick together': When hockey and a hurricane collided

The women of USA Hockey spent their summer training in Tampa...then came Hurricane Irma.

Author:
Matt Renoux

Published:
10:01 PM EST December 26, 2017

Updated:
10:38 AM EST December 29, 2017

Training for the Olympics is one of the hardest things an athlete can do and doing that while a major hurricane is bearing down on your team definitely doesn't make it any easier.

The women of USA Hockey spent their summer training in Tampa, Florida, then came Hurricane Irma. But the natural disaster didn't slow the team down, it helped their training.

The closest thing to a natural disaster that Team USA hockey goalie Nicole Hensley had ever faced was a major snow storm or two while growing up in Denver. That is until she and her teammates ended up in a face-off with Irma.

"We've got water flying off the shelves, bread," Hensley recalled. Irma postponed their Olympic training so they could stock up on food and water.

Forward Anna Kessel said they were going to the grocery store every day to try and scrounge water or snacks to prepare for the storm.

They wound up being evacuated with hundreds of others to a shelter and spent 24 hours there.

While it took a toll on them emotionally, the athletes with Team USA hockey say that the whole ordeal actually brought the team closer together.

"It's just one more thing we can check off that we have done together," Monique Lamoureux described. "We made the best of a unfortunate situation and kind of treated it as a big team bonding experience."

It was certainly something Nicole Hensley never thought she would have to deal with. But she said the experience will make Team USA an unstoppable force of nature at the Olympics.